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United Nations aid agencies and their partners today requested almost $460 million to help Pakistan assist millions of people affected by floods that have cut a swathe through the country, killing hundreds of people and destroying homes, farmland and major infrastructure.

Zimbabwe's production of maize, its staple food, has improved "significantly", but the country is still food insecure and about 1.68 million people will require assistance in the first quarter of 2011, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) said in a national crop and food security situation report released on 9 August.

North Korean television has confirmed another disaster has occurred in the Communist country.

There has been a rise in the death toll from massive flooding in central Europe overnight.

For the past 10 days, torrential monsoon rainfall has killed more than 1,600 people inflicted widesperad damage across the country, with the northwestern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) suffering the greatest losses, federal authorities and aid agencies say.

Yangon - A month-long closure of the Thai-Myanmar border to trade has caused a shortage of consumer items such as televisions and refrigerators in Yangon, media reports said Sunday.

Myanmar's ruling junta last month shut down the Myawaddy-Mae Sot border crossing after accusing Thailand of building an embankment on the Moei River to alter the common border line.

Mae Sot, in Thailand's Tak province, is a major source of Thai consumer goods into neighbouring Myanmar, usually transported across the Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge.

In the UK, Virgin Atlantic Airways and British Airways have raised fares.

Both airlines have cited an increase in business travel as the reason for being able to generate higher fares.

The biggest long-distance carriers at London's Heathrow airport, have claimed increases in bookings of up to 14 percent over three month periods.

British Airways has said its rises were across all classes, with premium sales more buoyant due to companies now allowing their employees to book more expensive seats.

Cuba's revolutionary leader Fidel Castro Saturday delivered a speech on the Iranian nuclear issue before country's parliament, his first official appearance in four years.

Dressed in his trademark olive green military uniform, the 83-year-old leader was greeted with applause as he walked in, Xinhua reported.

Castro warned that there could be a nuclear war if US President Barack Obama ordered an attack on Iran. The special session broadcast on television was held to debate Castro's warnings about the risks of a nuclear war.

Saddam Hussein's former deputy prime minister, Tareq Aziz, has been highly critical of the US policy to withdraw combat troops, which will happen despite a recent upsurge in violence.

During this fall's election fight, Congress will have to take up an especially controversial issue. It will have to decide whether to extend a series of tax cuts that are scheduled to expire at the end of this year.